DNN just learned that Godaddy has once again made some changes for the better with their domain auction platform. Godaddy auctions now pay out in 5 days if the domain name is registered at Godaddy and sold through their auction system. Domains registered at other registrars and sold through the auction platform still are paid out after 20 days.

A representative from Godaddy informed us that streamlining some other policies with regards to the Premium Listings is in the works. Hopefully we’ll see faster payments in that sales channel as well. Currently it takes 45 days after the end of the month to receive payment. This means if you sold a domain on November 1st you could wait up until January 15th to receive payment. Much of this is delay is due to the nature of selling a high price domain and accepting credit cards. Godaddy must wait a certain time period to prevent fraud or chargebacks on these purchases, but the difference between auction payouts (5-20 days) and Premium Listing (45-75 days) payout times has us a bit baffled.

Premium Listings have also gone back to 30% commission, having been at 20% for the month of August and September. These rates need to be consistent and not changing all the time and the payments need to be expedited as fast as possible.

Godaddy’s Premium Listings are a popular way for some domain name investors to sell their “fixed price” inventory of domains through Godaddy.com. One of the biggest benefits of Premium Listings is that domains listed with the service show up for sale when a user searches from the Godaddy home page.

Godaddy users who currently have their names listed as Premium Listings should verify that their names are listed at this reduced rate by logging in to the Godaddy control panel and navigating to the Premium Listings area. DNW details a way to do a bulk change to your listings in order to take advantage of this promotion.

DNN has just received word from Godaddy that Premium Listings sales commissions have been reduced to 20% on all new Premium Listings for the month of August. The previous rate was set at an industry-high 30%. Many domain name sellers had noted that the Godaddy commission was excessive but had seen good results using the platform to increase their sales. It’s important to note that this is a promotion on new listings. If you have existing names listed, you may want to delete them now and re-list them to take advantage of the lower commission structure.

All domain names sold through Premium Listings are displayed as for sale, with a “fixed price”, when a user searches for the domain from the Godaddy home page. Godaddy also offers an auction platform with a lower commission of 10%. These names also appear in the results for home page searches. Sellers can list their names at a fixed “buy it now” auction price, but auction listings do require the seller to sign-up and bid, and thus the conversions are likely to be lower than a “fixed price” option that takes the user right to a cart and checkout rather than requiring bidding. A recent report released by Sedo claims that “fixed prices” increased sales by up to 40%.

DNN received several reports during the Super Bowl that Godaddy had removed Premium Listings from being displayed. Elliot’s Blog made mention of this possibility and today we received confirmation from Paul Nicks, Director of Godaddy Aftermarket, that the company did indeed pull Premium Listings during the Super Bowl.

Nicks confirmed that the listings were removed but were quickly put back in to play . He assured DNN that the Premium channel would benefit from much of the post-game marketing blitz that Godaddy is conducting even still.

Nicks told DNN

“It is true that for a small portion of time around the airing of the two commercials, the Premium Listing service was static. GoDaddy.com optimizes the site to handle the crush of web traffic coming to us for Super Bowl ads. People were visiting the site to see the Super Bowl commercials and that’s what we provided, a secure, safe and solid website.”

Godaddy has been making strides to become a player in the domain aftermarket and the chance to benefit from the traffic from a Super Bowl ad obviously would be very appealing to anyone selling in the aftermarket. Godaddy even issued a statement on January 31st touting the Super Bowl ad timing as a great time for customers to “leverage the Super Bowl Glow” to sell through the Premium Listings. While one would have assumed the best time to benefit would have been during the ad rush, it looks like Godaddy considers the timing before and after the Super Bowl ads to be the “Super Bowl Glow”.

Nicks continues, “An exciting element to consider, one we did not tout in our news release, is the amount of publicity that would drive visitors and potential customers to our website in the days preceding the game. Go Daddy clips and commercials were shown on network news programs, syndicated entertainment programs and discussed in major print and online publications, starting January 31st. Many highlighted Go Daddy’s successful strategies and history with driving traffic to the website. This helped our Premium Listing customers in ways we did not predict.”

“We are exceeding our own expectations for web traffic today, following the game and our Premium Listing service is certainly benefiting from increased exposure. Last night’s commercials are generating a tremendous amount of publicity today, as critics discuss the ads. We are also executing a major media tour in New York City right now with our new GoDaddy.CO Girl, Joan Rivers. We expect her talking about domain names in the mainstream media will help sustain interest beyond this morning.”